ESSAYS, INTERVIEWS, RECOLLECTIONS AND UNPUBLISHED MATERIAL OF GU CHENG, 20TH CENTURY CHINESE POET: The Poetics of Death

Author:

Li, Xia

Year:

1999

Pages:

488

ISBN:

0-7734-8005-6978-0-7734-8005-6

Price:

279.95

This study is a wide-ranging collection of contributions by people close to the final drama and tragic death of Chinese poet Gu Cheng and by eminent international scholars with diverse views on the poet and his literary achievements. The contributions represent an interesting balance of male and females perspectives on Gu Cheng. They include biographical sketches with personal insights and reminiscences, as well as unpublished documents and critical assessments of his literary oeuvre. It constitutes a significant source book on Gu Cheng, particularly since so little critical response has been available in English.

Reviews

“. . . provides the most probing look to date into the mind and heart of this leading ‘misty poet.’ From both Chinese and Western scholars and colleagues, essays, studies, and interviews examine Gu Cheng’s literary genius and the tormented soul he revealed through his poems and letters. Li Xia appends both a useful chronology of Gu Cheng’s life and a comprehensive bibliography. Full of competent and interesting resources, this volume is strongly recommended for libraries that wish to go beyond basic coverage of contemporary Chinese literature.” – CHOICE

Table of Contents

Table of contents: Foreword
Preface by Göran Malmqvist (Stockholm)
Introduction by Li Xia
Part One: Critical Studies
The Poetics of Death (Henry Y. Zhao)
Gu Cheng: Beijing. I (Wolfgang Kubin)
The Death of Gu Cheng (Tang Xiaodu)
Two Generations: On the Subject of not Understanding Poetry (Gu Gong)
Gu Cheng’s Ying’er: A Journey to the West (Li Xia)
A Perspective on the Suicide of Chinese Poets in the 1990s (Wang Yuechuan)
Marginalia to Gu Cheng’s “Dasuowen” – “Questions and Answers” (Marián Gálik)
Sitting with (S)words: An Interpretation of Gu Cheng’s Poem “Table” (Peter Hoffmann)
Two Works - Hong (1930) and Ying’er (1993) - as Indeterminate Joint Ventures (Raoul David Findeisen)
“All my flowers are dream flowers”: The Role of Nature in Gu Cheng’s Poetry and Prose (Li Xia)
An Intimate Estrangement (Simon Patton)
Part Two: Reminiscences and Reflections
Pursuing His Dream (Gu Gong)
A Letter to Bridget (Xie Ye)
Fragments: Remembering Gu Cheng and Xie Ye (Wolfgang Kubin)
The Last Days of Gu Cheng (Wen Xin)
Some Biographical Notes on Ying’er and Gu Cheng’s Death (Wu Sijing)
“The song of the other shores is the same song”: Random Reminiscences of a Poetic Path – A Friend Attempts a Revisualisation (Richard Trappl)
Part Three: Interviews, Letters, and Unpublished Material
“The Aimless I” – An Interview with Gu Cheng (Suizi Zhang-Kubin)
“Dasuowen” – “Questions and Answers” (Gu Cheng)
On the Nature of Feminine Purity in A Dream of Red Mansions and Goethe’s Faust: Marián Gálik Interviews Gu Cheng in Berlin, April 24, 1992
Letter to Peter Hoffmann (Gu Cheng)
Letter to Peter Hoffmann (Gu Cheng)
Letter to Wen Xin (Gu Cheng)
Letter to Wen Xin (Gu Cheng)
Letter to Wolfgang Kubin (Gu Cheng)
Letter to Wolfgang Kubin, Suizi Zhang-Kubin and Xiaobin (Gu Cheng, Xie Ye and Mu’er)
Letter to Wolfgang Kubin and Suizi Zhang-Kubin (Gu Cheng and Xie Ye )
Apendix: Facsimile Prints of original Documents Translated above
A Brief Chronology of Gu Cheng’s Life
Bibliography